ICE In Conversation with Jonathan Coe

Edge Hill University, 11th February 2016
ICE In Conversation with Jonathan Coe
www.edgehill.a...
The Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) is Edge Hill University’s practice-led and theoretically grounded interdisciplinary research forum which connects us with the digital and creative economy and with cultural institutions.
Multi award winning novelist, Jonathan Coe discusses, and reads from, his latest, and eleventh, novel, ‘Number 11’, which was published on the 11th day of the 11th month, 2015.
Jonathan Coe will be in conversation with Professor Roger Shannon, Director Edge Hill University’s Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE).
www.edgehill.ac.uk/ice
@edgehillice
Guardian review of Number 11:
‘A brutal family dynasty shows its staying power in this state-of-the-nation satire that takes in reality TV, wealth inequality, the death of David Kelly and giant spiders….Angry, bleak, preoccupied with establishing occult power connections to the extent that it would easily earn its place on a shelf of “paranoid fiction”, Number 11 is undoubtedly a political novel. It is also an interrogation of the purposes and efficacy of humour in exposing society’s ills, and a spoof on horror B-movies …’
‘Number 11’ is Coe’s sequel, of sorts, to his 1994 ‘What a Carve Up!’, his extraordinary piece of social satire, which uses the story of a powerful, wealthy and ruthless family, the Winshaws, to expose the excesses and evils of all aspects of Thatcherite Britain. The Winshaws’ lust for power took them into virtually every aspect of British life: the media, the arms trade, agriculture and food production, the health service, and the art world.
‘Number 11’ provides another stinging social and political attack, this time on austerity Britain. There’s migrant trafficking, the closing of libraries, the squalid and brutal horrors of reality TV, the threat to make universities ‘service providers’, the uncontrolled prejudices of the press and the absurd culture of the super rich.
What Coe satirically captures is the gaping chasm between the two distinct worlds of the haves and the have-nots in an era of austerity, exposing the mantra of “we’re all in it together”.
This date was part of a wider programme of events that took place at Edge Hill during January - March as part of the Festival of Ideas 2016, a diverse range of events exploring culture, health and society. The main theme is Imagining Better - envisioning ways for communities, arts and healthcare to develop and flourish, even in times of austerity and inequality. Read More: www.edgehill.ac.uk/ice/festival-of-ideas-2016/

[@tricky2055]

This is absolutely fascinating!

[@classy_dweller]

Great Jonathan Coe!

[@andrewshaw682]

Claudius Constantinus e